


Least

by What_we_are



Category: Breaking Bad
Genre: Gen, Grief/Mourning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-08
Updated: 2018-01-08
Packaged: 2019-02-11 18:37:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 682
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12941292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/What_we_are/pseuds/What_we_are
Summary: Marie and Skyler try to celebrate Christmas after Felina.





	Least

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bisexualjesse](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bisexualjesse/gifts).



Flynn looked over at his mom at their breakfast table in their dingy apartment. 

“Are you going to get the phone?” he asked.

Skyler stared at her uneaten English muffin. 

Marie said over the answering machine, “Merry Christmas you guys. I was thinking: what if we do Christmas Eve breakfast at your house and Christmas dinner at mine? I’m thinking Mandarin chicken, just to be different. Anyway. So, just call me back. Call me back either way.” Her voice wasn’t as chipper as it used to be, but it was clear she was making an effort. 

Flynn cajoled his mom, “It could be fun, right? We can’t just ignore Christmas.”

“I have to work.”

“Then we’ll do it a few days before. Come on, Mom. We have to try. I’ll help cook. I’ll make cinnamon rolls and you can make an egg casserole. Or I’ll do all of it. You know those cinnamon rolls that come in a can? It’s easy.” He paused and added, “You have to see her sooner or later.”

Skyler started crying.

Flynn went on, “She’s doing really good, Mom. Last time I took Holly over there she was going really good.”

* * *

After the holiday breakfast, Flynn took off to be with Louis’s family, and the sisters were left in the apartment with only the baby as a buffer. 

Marie said, “I can’t believe she’s walking so well. She’ll be running in no time.” 

“I know it,” Skyler responded. 

They were quiet for a moment, looking at Holly totter across the kitchen. 

Skyler asked, “You want to help me wrap the stocking stuffers?”

“Yes. Of course.”

“I know Flynn’s too old, but I just wanted to do it one last time, you know?”

Holly banged the kitchen cabinets. The childproof latch meant that she could only bang them from an inch out, but it still made a loud noise that seemed to please her. 

Marie asked, “Does she do that a lot? Flynn told me she’s been doing it a lot.”

“She never gets tired of it. Remember how Junior used to love hitting on pans with wooden spoons?”

“Yes. Oh, my gosh. I don’t know how you didn’t go insane.”

“Sometimes I distract her, if Flynn’s trying to study or if I have a headache. She likes to be read to.” 

“That’s sweet. I just have word books at my house for her. No stories. I should get some.”

Skyler went to her room and came back with wrapping supplies and a paper grocery bag of little presents -- cheap things she had found at the dollar store: chocolates, a generic Uno game, a rubber duckie. 

They wrapped each gift, and as a joke, they even wrapped the Clementine oranges and nuts. 

Marie asked, “Are you ready to talk?” 

Skyler had been waiting for her to say that. 

Holly kept banging the cabinet door, so Skyler picked her up and held her on her lap. 

“Marie, I’m so sorry. I can’t explain how it got out of hand so quickly. There’s no excuse. I’m just so sorry.” She teared up. “I’m so sorry. Hank should be here. I mean he was always so good with the kids. I just miss him. And I’m so sorry for my part in it.”

Marie managed to say, “Dave says that I can’t live in the past. We have to find a way to bring Hank with us. I mean, we have to be there for the kids. That’s the main thing. Me resenting you doesn’t help that. It doesn’t help them.”

“What do you mean ‘bring him with us’?”

“I’m going to set a place for him at the table at Christmas. Light a candle or something. And I still talk to him.”

“Out loud?”

“In my head, and sometimes on the phone. I still pay the phone bill, so it’s connected and has his voicemail. I leave him messages.”

“I’m so sorry, Marie.”

Marie nodded. “I know.” She absentmindedly fiddled with the Holly’s Christmas stocking, “I just keep telling myself that at least we have Flynn and Holly, you know?”


End file.
